Fire on Universal lot/Film Vault damaged

[Mr. Toad]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/01/studio.fire/index.html

At this point does not say what the damage to the film vault is, but this could be disasterous for future DVD releases from Universal. Somehow CNN thinks the King Kong exhibit is more important.

[2099net]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/01/studio.fire/index.html

At this point does not say what the damage to the film vault is, but this could be disasterous for future DVD releases from Universal. Somehow CNN thinks the King Kong exhibit is more important.

King Kong's a monkey. Monkeys are funny.

Seriously, I doubt the proper film vault will be that much affected, if at all. When I worked programming on a mainframe computer for a company many, many, many times smaller than Universal (both in turnover and employees) they had insane protection around their mainframe and data store - 2 foot concete walls (protection against fire and other damage), gas which could flood the room and remove all oxygen within 30 seconds (incidently, killing anyone left inside - we had regular safety drills and training films about that) and of course, copies were stored on more than one site.

I don't really see why Universal's film vault would be any different. Even though the copies would be problematic I suppose, they should have copies almost as good as (if not identical) the originals somewhere off-site.

[ifoceanscollide]

Duplicates are kept at another location, he told AP.

"Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost," Meyer told CNN. "The video library was affected and damaged, but our main vault of our motion picture negatives was not."

from the CNN website

[blackcauldron85]

I read from a website (I'm not sure which one) that the tapes that were damaged were pretty much duplicates of TV shows, and that some backlot sets were ruined, but not sets that are currently being used.

[Siren]

Poor King Kong...first he gets shot off a skyscraper and now burned. Where's PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animatronics) when ya need them?

[Mr. Toad]

Turns out some irreplaceable masters were destroyed. Many music recordings including those by Bing Crosby and Judy Garland were destroyed. The copies by their very nature will not be of the same quality.

Also, some of the destroyed were being used including many of those used for the TV series Ghost Whisperer. The most famous set destroyed was the town center from Back to the Future.

[PixarFan2006]

I heard about the BTTF set and the King Kong exhibit getting destroyed. I do not know what archives got destroyed though.

Well, at least nobody was hurt.

[my chicken is infected]

Universal Music VP: Archived Music Not Lost in Universal Studios Fire

[2099net]

Mr Toad, seriously, if Universal can afford to make movies costing the GDP of a small country, including paying actors in excess of $25m for one movie, then they can sure as hell afford to fireproof their archives!

I refuse to believe anything apart from copies taken out from the "vault" for current use were destroyed in the fire.

If not, then Universal deserve everything that they get (even though ultimately 'we' are the losers).

My old company had a turnover (not profit) of less than £5m per year, yet they still had a proper basement vault, fully air conditioned and moisture controlled and FIREPROOF for their computers and computer data. In fact, they had two - one on site and one off site (again for the eventuality of a fire)

[Barbossa]

Wow, looking at some of the photos of the backlot on other websites it looks like someone tried to "nuke the fridge".

[Mr. Toad]

Mr Toad, seriously, if Universal can afford to make movies costing the GDP of a small country, including paying actors in excess of $25m for one movie, then they can sure as hell afford to fireproof their archives!

I refuse to believe anything apart from copies taken out from the "vault" for current use were destroyed in the fire.

If not, then Universal deserve everything that they get (even though ultimately 'we' are the losers).

My old company had a turnover (not profit) of less than £5m per year, yet they still had a proper basement vault, fully air conditioned and moisture controlled and FIREPROOF for their computers and computer data. In fact, they had two - one on site and one off site (again for the eventuality of a fire)

Dude, I am just reporting what has been reported by seemingly good sources elsewhere like Rolling Stone and the Hollywood Reporter.